DIY dinner

chris and i have been watching a lot of jamie oliver's food revolution lately. it continues to astound us just how many people there are in north america who rely on fast food, pre-packaged foods, and processed/frozen foods for a majority of their meals.

i've seen supersize me and i've read excerpts from fast food nation; but i'd never realized that people really DO live that fast-food/convenience food lifestyle.

moreover, i can't believe that people regularly feed their children that crap. the brown-bag lunches featured on the most recent episode of jamie's food revolution were full of convenience foods, and therefore full of: sugar, sodium, preservatives and additives. see the lengthy list of ingredients on this pre-packaged/frozen peanut butter and jelly sandwich. and i thought a simple PB and J sandwich was already a convenience food (ie. it's easy to make?!)

chris and i both grew up with daily home-cooked meals, and brown-bag lunches filled with sandwiches, apples, carrot sticks and the occasional cookie/treat. for my family, fast food was a treat, happening only every second thursday of the month. the other 28 meals per month were home-made.

so, until watching jamie's food revolution, i probably wouldn't have considered making a healthy dinner as a worthy adventure in DIYing. but now, i guess i do!

 so, here's what we had for dinner on friday night. i made my first ever french onion soup. using alton brown's recipe. there's a few things i'd change about the recipe. overall, it was a bit too thick for us (a few too many onions, and not enough broth); and maybe a touch too sweet too. i'll go for more beef broth, less apple cider and less onions overall next time.

we didn't own french-onion soup crocks until friday morning, when i found some handmade ones at value village for a mere 99 cents each! they've got great character - little imperfections and signs that they are obviously hand made.

i also made some fresh garlic bread to go with the soup, and topped it with mozzarella and parmesan cheeses. i tossed a few local salad greens in our home-made salad dressing and sprinkled with a few roasted pumpkin seeds. overall not a difficult meal. just a bit time consuming - but that's what funemployment is about.